


sea monkeys

by ladymars



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Creation Alexei, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Scientist Kent, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 02:46:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15160775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladymars/pseuds/ladymars
Summary: Kent Parson needs a date.So, he makes one in his garage.





	sea monkeys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [badcaseofcasey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/badcaseofcasey/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Kent!
> 
> I was given a pretty broad prompt (Kent Parson being happy, soulmates, fake dating/relationship, non-hockey AUs), so I smooshed all that together and ran with it.

Swoops was sipping his beer this loudly just to piss him off, Kent was sure. He wouldn’t have invited him over if he was sure he wouldn’t blow up the roof of his garage with his little science experiment but that was still a toss-up, so here he was. He needed someone to call 911 if he like, blew off his face or did something crazy like that.

“You can literally hire an escort,” Swoops called out from the plastic chair he was sitting on at the other end of the garage. Kent had told him to sit far away from his work area, but he had taken upon himself to sit almost outside of the open garage doors. “Or pay off anyone. Hell, I’ll be your date if you need one this badly.”

“You’re going with your fiancée to the dinner too,” Kent pointed out from where he’s elbow deep in nutrient media as he pipets the last of the stem cells into the mold. The tank before him was as big as a coffin, the clear plexiglass container completely filled with pink-red liquid. Inside laid something vaguely human-shaped, obscured by the liquid.

Swoops clicked his tongue. “There’s like a million different options you can consider before making a date from scratch.”

With a heavy sigh, Kent pulled his hands out of the media and shook off the excess drops from his gloves before peeling them off. He was finally done, no thanks to Swoops’s bitching. His experiment looked perfect, just as he had pictured him. Just as he had described to Jack as he frantically made up a boyfriend on the spot after he asked if he was seeing someone and if he wanted to bring them over to his birthday dinner.

“Put on your goggles,” Kent said to Swoops as he tossed away his gloves and double checked the vitals on the blinking machines next to the tank. Temperature, good. Acidity, good. Oxygenation, good. All the cells were in their proper place so they just needed a zap to set and he would have an instant boyfriend. Swoops did put on his goggles without whining, though he did give an eye roll.

Once everything was done, Kent pulled on his own goggles and stepped over to the start lever. (He could have gone with a simple button, but he’s a little dramatic, and levers were more fun.) Bracing himself, he brought down the lever with a metallic clank, praying to himself that this would work.

The lights of the house and the street blinked for a second as the machines hum louder, sending electrical vibrations through the air. The media pebbled at the strength of the vibrations the probes were transmitting into the tank. Everything was buzzing. Maybe even the floor was shaking. Kent’s hair stood on end and Swoops was gripping at his armrests for dear life.

After a few seconds, the machines powered down, leaving a ringing in Kent’s ears. He held his breath as he hesitantly leaned over to peek into the tank. No movement... Damn. Maybe he should have pushed more power into it. He had caused a blackout through this part of the city when he was making Kit, and that’s just a cat in that case, and–

Then the man in the tank sat up with such force that he scared Swoops right off of his chair with a girly scream.

Kent almost collapsed from relief. “You’re alive!” he exclaimed, throwing his arms out.

The new man was still coughing up media and learning how to use his lungs to really appreciate the miracle of life. Shit, he was probably choking. Kent crouched down to pat him in the back to dislodge the fluid. The man finally caught his breath, though he was still panting and occasionally coughing. But he was breathing and he was alive! And whoa, he’s better looking than Kent had intended. Broad shoulders, bright brown eyes, masculine… Way out of his league. Great, he had made himself a boyfriend that was still too good for him.

Pushing the thought aside, Kent stood up, still leaning towards his new boyfriend as he rubbed his shoulders. “Swoops, get off your ass and pass me the towel.”

Swoops scrambled to his feet and rushed into the house, giving them a wide berth. By the time he was back with a towel and some clothes Kent had put aside for the man, Kent had managed to get his creation up on his feet standing in the tank. Swoops stumbled at the door as he looked up at the man. “Jesus, he’s big.” His eyes flickered down for a second before giving Kent an unamused look. “Really?”

Kent just shrugged and smirked. “If he’s custom made, I’m going to make sure he has everything I like,” he insisted. “Pass the towel and pick up your jaw from the floor.”

Swoops tossed the towel his way. “You’re not going to have sex with him. You don’t have time to if you expect him to act like a boyfriend in four days.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kent muttered as he dried up the man. Yeah, way out of his league. He had made him muscular and built because that’s how he liked them, but he hadn’t realized just how tall and broad he would be when he was crunching the numbers. “Here, hold on to my hand so you can step out.”

The man looked dazed and tired, a bit hunched into himself. At least he didn’t look completely lost and scared at the totally new surroundings. He took the offered hand and gingerly stepped over the sides of the tank he had been created him. Shivering at the cool air, he looked down at his creator, almost analyzing him. “Kent?”

Kent’s stomach gave a thrilled flip. Okay, good. He could see and he could recognize him. His brain programming worked. “Yeah, I’m Kent,” he said, giving him a small smile that his man thankfully reflected. “And that’s Swoops. You know him too, right?”

The man squinted at him, Swoops giving him a hesitant wave, and nodded slowly. “Swoops... Jeff. Is good friend.”

Swoops cut in, “Why does he sound Russian?”

Kent shrugged. “I guess that’s just the way he came out.” He gestured at Swoops to toss him the clothes and then helped the man dress in the soft shirt and sweatpants, already in his size. He’ll help bathe himself later, once he’s more used to being alive.

Swoops stood back and watched them as Kent clumsily helped his man get dressed, hands on his hips. “Shit, I can’t believe you actually made a man.”

“I know, right?” Kent scoffed as he dried his man’s hair a bit more with a towel. “Isn’t he cute?”

“What’s his name?” Swoops rolled his eyes when Kent hesitated. “You forgot to give him a name.”

“I didn’t forget!” Kent insisted. “I have to meet him before I give him a name.”

The man whined softly. “Hungry...”

“Yeah, you have to eat,” Kent said, taking his hand. “We’ll figure out a name while you eat. How does that sound?”

The man nodded and let Kent lead him to his spacious kitchen, neat and modern. Biotech startup money. He’d sold his ideas and projects for millions, so now he had spare money to have his own lab at home to make his own personal projects like glowing beer and custom-made boyfriends. He sat down on a stool at the counter as Kent pulled out some containers of pre-made food: plain chicken breast, mashed potatoes, and a simple green salad. This would be the first time he would eat, so he had to go with something gentle but rounded.

Swoops thankfully decided to make himself useful as Kent popped the food in the microwave and took out a plate set. He picked up a fork to show to the man. “Do you know what this is?”

The man furrowed his brow at him. “Is fork.”

“And this?”

“Knife.”

“And this?”

“I’m knowing words for things, Swoops,” the man deadpanned, making Kent snort pretty hard as Swoops gasped and pouted at Kent.

“He can’t sass me like that!” Swoops whined. “And his grammar is all jacked up…”

“Children, please stop fighting,” Kent groaned as he brought over the food. The man sat up and took his fork, wrapping all his fingers around the handle, and clumsily took a bite of mashed potatoes. He knew what he was doing, the action of using a fork and eating recorded in his head, but this was the first time applying the action. Kent had taken some time over the hectic weekend to make sure he knew basic actions and could recognize simple objects. “You know you can leave at any time. I’m not going to explode anything else for the day,” Kent pointed out to Swoops.

“Hell no," Swoops insisted. "He’s big enough to kill you with his bare hands, so I’m staying."

“You can say that you’re a nosy bitch, you know,” Kent said dryly. That made a soft chuckle come out of the man, just shaking his shoulders. There was the soft flutter in Kent’s stomach again. See, he had made the right choice doing this. Seeing him slowly eat as he figured out the knife and fork, he felt a pull to wrap his arms around his head to cradle it against his chest, protecting him from the world.

Swoops flipped him off. “You programmed a sense of humor in him, I see.” He looked over the man, considering him. “He sounds Russian, so you should give him a Russian name.” He pulled out his phone and placed it on the counter. Kent could see him googling ‘Russian boy names’. “Okay, let’s see... Alek, Aleksandr... Stop me when you hear one you like.”

Kent rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to go in alphabetical order.”

Swoops continued, ignoring him. “...Aleksei, Alexei, Ana–“

“That one,” the man interrupted. “I’m liking that one.”

“Which one? Alexei?” Swoops asked, to which the man answered with a nod. “Hey, that was easy! We have a name!”

Kent just sighed as he leaned against the counter. “At least he didn’t go for something like Boris, I guess.” It did feel right to let, well, Alexei name himself. Yeah, he had created him, but he wasn’t his master.

“He needs a last name now,” Swoops said as he started to tap his phone again.

“If you start reciting Russian last names in alphabetical order, I’m chucking your phone out the window,” Kent said, sounding pretty sure of his threat.

Swoops rolled his eyes. “And hey, you don’t even have to pick a real Russian name. Better to not accidentally name him after a real person,” he reasoned. “Just pick any item and put something that sounds Russian at the end.” He looked at what was around them before pointing at Alexei’s fork. “Forkovski.” Then at the chicken breast. “Chickenpashov.” Then at the mashed potatoes. “Mashkov.”

“That one,” Alexei said, to which Kent gave Swoops a death glare. “I’m liking that one.”

Swoops grinned and gestured grandly at Alexei. “Kent, meet your new boyfriend: Alexei Mashkov.”

**T -4 Days**

Swoops left once Alexei finished eating and told Kent to call him if Alexei snapped and tried to kill his creator. Now alone, Kent let Alexei take a shower, staying right outside the door in case Alexei slipped and cracked his skull on the tile or he couldn’t figure out how shampoo worked. He couldn’t help fretting, fidgeting and playing with the elastic band covering his left forearm. The difficult part was done, but it was uphill from here.

Kent gave Alexei a thin smile as he stepped out of the bathroom, smelling nice and dressed in fresh clothes. “Let’s have a drink and talk,” he said as he nodded towards the hall. He led him to the bar at the lounge and grabbed a Natty Light for himself and a bottle of water for Alexei. There was a full bar, but the comfort of a light beer felt good now. Sitting at the bar with Alexei, Kent popped his can open and chugged for a second to steady himself. “You know why you’re here.” His statement almost sounded like a question.

Alexei nodded, fidgeting with the cap of his bottle. “I act as boyfriend for the birthday dinner of Jack on Friday,” he said, recited as if Kent had laser printed the words into the inside of his forehead (which he basically did).

“Okay, good,” Kent sighed. It looked like the programming did work out after all. The sleepless nights to make sure Alexei knew what a fork was and how to use the bathroom were worth it. He rubbed his temple. Now that was starting to get to him. “And afterward, you’re free to, well, do whatever you want. I made you, but you’re a free man. I mean, please help me with this date thing first but after that, you don’t have to stay with me if you can’t stand me.”

Alexei offered him a smile. A warm smile at that, his eyes crinkling and his cheeks rounding out. “I will help. Would not feel good if not helping.”

Kent exhaled. “Thanks, man.” He didn’t know what he would do if he gave his creation too much free will and thought that he was crazy for making him just to go on a stupid date. Make another one, this time less able to think for himself? “You have your own room and your own stuff, and I don’t expect you to do any boyfriend stuff besides when you have to. I’ll take care of all the paperwork you need once you’re done with me. Licenses, birth certificate, visas if you do want to be from Russia. I know some guys. You just, y’know, focus on enjoying being alive and learning about the world and thinking of what you want to do afterward.”

Alexei nodded and smiled again. Looked like he was a smiley one. “Traveling and seeing world would be nice,” he mused. “I’m knowing things but… is not feeling same as living them, you know?”

Kent nodded. He’s a smart one, despite the broken English. He’s cooperative and had been sweet so far. Yes, Alexei was supposed to be his perfect man, but he hadn’t expected this creation to go so well. Maybe things will go over pretty smoothly for once.

“Hey, could you tell me the time? There’s a clock on your side of the counter,” Kent said, pointing at the digital clock at the other end of the bar.

Alexei squinted at the clock for several seconds. “I’m not knowing what this is saying...”

It dawned on Kent. Shit, he had forgotten to teach him how to read and write.

**T -3 Days**

“I’m having question?” Alexei said as Kent fixed eggs for the both of them from his perch at the counter. The news was playing on his tablet so Alexei could catch up on what was going on in the world. He’s been soaking up information like a sponge, thankfully. Kent got him started on Hooked on Phonics the night before and he had been blasting through those.

Kent continued scrambling the eggs on the pan. “Yeah, shoot.”

“Why is mark of yours covered with band?”

Kent stopped scrambling, hyper-aware of the elastic band on his arm. Right. He knew Alexei knew the basics of soulmates but probably not the nuances. “It’s, uh... superstition. A silly thing,” he answered with a shrug as he continued cooking, not turning back to Alexei.

“Why am I not having mark?” Alexei asked, waving his bare forearms at Kent, apparently not catching Kent’s hesitation.

“Well, I can’t just make one.” Alexei didn’t have any marks at all, no scars or moles, except for the belly button Kent took the time to sculpt. If he had started dotting him with marks, he would have never finished making him. Still, he could have given Alexei a pseudo-mark in his handwriting but... it didn’t feel right. Hell, he probably didn’t have a soul, but faking a mark just felt wrong.

Alexei rested his arms back on the counter, pursing his lips. “Would be nice to be having mark... Can I see yours?”

Kent balked and offered Alexei a small, almost strained smile over his shoulder. “I can’t show anyone. Like I said, superstition. If I show someone, it could spoil the first words to my soulmate.” Kent hated his mark. If he could call it that. It’s big and dark and irregular against the pale skin of the inside of his forearm, sprawling. If he squinted, Kent might guess that it looked like his name but that might be that wishful thinking humans had for seeing things that weren’t like seeing a man on the moon or a face on the grill of a car. Nothing like Eric’s neat chicken scratch jotting down part of a recipe on Jack’s arm or Samantha’s old phone number in her bubbly handwriting on Swoops’s arm, the first thing they wrote in front of their soulmate. At least he had one, he guessed. Some people didn’t. Maybe his was actually whatever Kit scratched into her litter box the first time she used it.

“Ah, understand,” Alexei hummed, nodding slowly. Silence lingered after that, heavy. Kent slid over Alexei’s scrambled eggs over to him and sent to sit down on the stool next to him. After a while of quiet eating, Alexei finally spoke up again, “Why’d you not make me your soulmate? You could make me in however way you’re wanting.”

There it was. Took him longer to ask than Kent thought he would, to start asking questions about his existence. Kent chewed as he thought of how to answer. “Well, it wouldn’t be fair to you if you’re tied down to me like that,” he finally answered with what he hoped was a kind smile. “Like, I have my own soulmate mark, and what happens if my mark doesn’t match your handwriting? Which you started to work on literally an hour ago.”

Alexei took a bite of his eggs as he seemingly considered that. He was mostly done with his breakfast already. The guy ate more than Kent expected. “You are good man, Kent,” he said, sounding so ominous that Kent for a second thought that maybe his programming was failing. “You have tools and smarts to be making person in garage and could be using for evil purposes but you don’t… Are you only one doing this?”

God, it’s way too early to be getting to bioethics. “Yeah, I’m the only one, as far as I know…” Kent answered, watching Alexei carefully. He’s heard rumors of other people working on creating humans, but they give out as much information as he does, which is none at all. And he would never share what he’s done for vaguely the reason Alexei said. Was he the person to decide that? Probably not, but it felt better to keep it to himself instead of unleashing this into the world.

Alexei smiled, which thankfully broke the tension. “I’m thankful for you making me.” And there again was that stupid stomach fluttering that Kent wanted to keep at bay.

**T -2 Days**

“How’s the boyfriend training going?” Swoops asked him over the phone as he’s flashing a laser pointer at the wall so Kit could hunt for it. He was being mostly quiet and was distracting himself as Alexei studied at the office. Which was good that he was at another room because Kent couldn’t stop looking at him as he tried to work through how nouns work, furrowing his brow and letting his little pink tongue peak up from the side of his mouth.

“Pretty good. Hasn’t tried to kill me yet. Wait, shit…” He moved the laser away from his very large TV so Kit wouldn’t knock it over while on her hunt.

“Is he trying to kill you now?”

“No, you ass. It’s just Kit.” Swoops sounded almost excited at that too. “Alexei is at the office studying and being a good boyfriend.”

“Studying what?”

Kent couldn’t come up with a good lie fast enough so he opted for the truth. “…How to read?”

Swoops was silent for a second. “Oh my God, Kent…”

“There were more complicated things he needed to learn first!”

“Like?”

Kent hummed for a moment. “Well, like how not to shit in his pants! And how to eat. And I had to figure out a personality from scratch. I even sprinkled in some interesting things like how hockey works and Russian poetry and—”

“Wait, wait, wait, he knows _Russian poetry_ , but he doesn’t how to read and write in English?” Then before Kent could defend himself, he added, “Wait, did you make him Russian on purpose?”

“Not on _purpose_.” Kent scoffed. “I downloaded a mental module from a Russian site. It took me like, ten seconds to install.”

“Kent, you don’t even know Russian. What if he breaks mid-date and starts yelling in Russian?”

“He’s not gonna! I did a good job, thank you very much.”

He must have been speaking pretty loudly, because he heard footsteps and soon enough Alexei appeared at the door, looking cautious. “Is everything okay?” the poor guy asked.

“Yeah, everything’s okay, Tater,” Kent answered, ignoring Swoop’s ‘ _Tater?_ ’ from the other side of the phone. “Sorry, Swoops is just being a dumbass. I’ll be quieter.”

“Oh! Swoops?” Alexei grinned. “Tell him I’m saying hello!”

“Tell him to recite Russian poetry,” Swoops insisted.

“I am not going to tell him to recite Russian poetry,” Kent snapped back.

“He’s wanting me to recite poetry? I’m needing break from English please, haha,” Alexei asked, and he looked so earnest and excited that Kent just passed the phone over so he wouldn’t have to deal with Swoops’s chirping. They didn’t talk for long, thank God. Kent realized the mistake he had made after Alexei had scurried off to the office with his phone, chatting excitedly with Swoops.

Kent tried not to look too relieved when Alexei returned with his phone, thankfully still smiling. He returned to the office before Kent could ask what they had talked about, so he would just have to settle with whatever Swoops had to say. “Sup,” he answered the phone.

“Well, he’s definitely your type of guy,” Swoops greeted him.

Kent rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s the point.”

“You really made your dream dude here, Parser.”

“Gee, thanks…”

“Man, you’re really not getting it,” Swoops said, so sudden. “For being a genius, you’re such a dumbass sometimes.”

Kent scoffed, but Swoops sounded so earnest that he just answered with a lame, “I know you are but what am I?” before wrapping up the conversation.

**T -1 Day**

Kent wasn’t surprised at all when he heard a scream from the kitchen. “The popcorn is hot after it comes out of the microwave,” he called out from the couch at the living room. He would get up to help but Kit was nestled pretty comfortably on his lap.

“I know now!” Alexei shouted back. Kent heard some rustling for a second before Alexei arrived with a bowl of popcorn and a pair of beers for them. He dropped onto the couch, miraculously not spilling a single kernel, and did it with such force that Kent bounced right onto him. The sudden proximity made his heart give a skip but he quickly got settled away from him. Well, he sat shoulder to shoulder to him, but Alexei didn’t seem to find it strange that he was sitting so close, so here he stayed.

Alexei passed a beer over to Kent and then easily popped his open. He’s come a long way from opening a can of beer like he was pulling his fingernail off and choking down alcohol. After taking a sip of his beer, Alexei started eating popcorn by the handful as Kent started the recording of an old recording of a Falconers at Aces game. It was one thing to know about hockey but it was another to experience it, especially if he had to face off Jack “Hockey Robot, Beep Boop” Zimmermann.

“That’s Jack, the number 1 of the Falcs. He’s the birthday boy,” Kent pointed out as the camera panned over the players. “Spoiler alert: they’re about to get their asses kicked.”

Alexei nodded as he tossed a popcorn into his mouth. “Why are we cheering for Aces if Jack is playing for Falconers?”

“Because I like going against Jack and the Aces are the superior team. And also, I put the Ace’s stats somewhere in your head so you should know why.”

Alexei just grunted and focused on watching the game. Kent had seen this game live, so he remembered most of what happened. He’s watching Alexei instead, catching his reactions and smiling when he’s able to read the score on the screen.

“Hey, not fair! He knock over goalie!” Alexei exclaimed when the Aces barely get in a particularly aggressive goal.

“That’s how the game works,” Kent said with a shrug. “That’s a perfectly legal move.”

Alexei gets pouting, but Kent considered it a good lesson. Kent started getting suspicious that this was more than a lesson when Alexei didn’t cheer when the Aces scored their second goal. Then the Falconers scored their first and only goal and he almost threw his popcorn into the air.

“You’re cheering for the Falconers?” Kent asked, the fact finally sinking in.

“Is better team,” Alexei said, dishing back the same dismissive shrug Kent had given him.

Kent sputtered. What the fuck? He had put the Aces stats in Alexei’s head so he would be an Aces fan. “In this household, we cheer for the Aces!”

“Bah!” Alexei waved a hand at him. “Aces is no good. Go Falcs!”

Kent was still indignant about this development when he realized that this was a good sign. Alexei could think for himself, outside of what Kent had printed into his brain. He took the information he had and did his own interpretation of it. He was his own person now, so he’s not going to need Kent soon enough.

Letting go of him was gonna suck.

**Day Of**

Eric answered the door, balking for a second before brightening into a grin as he noticed that Kent was accompanied. “Oh, Kent! Hello! You made it just in time. Come on in,” he greeted, opening the door for them.

Kent gave him a quick handshake in greeting as he stepped inside, offering him a small and hopefully not too nervous smile. “This is Alexei, my boyfriend,” he said, gesturing at his date. “Alexei, Eric, Jack the birthday boy’s boyfriend.”

“Pleasure to meet you!” Eric said as he offered Alexei a hand to shake.

Kent watched Alexei carefully as he took the hand and gave it one shake. Good, he applied the right amount of pressure and didn’t break Eric’s hand. “Is nice meeting you too,” Alexei said, giving Eric a warm smile.

Eric reflected the smile and stepped towards the living room with mingling guests. “Y’all can leave the present at the table with the rest of them and help yourselves to the hors-d'oeuvres and the drinks while dinner is finished. I’ll let Jack know you’re here.”

Once he disappeared, Kent felt like he could breathe again. First step, done. A million to go. “Leave the present at the table,” he told Alexei, which he readily did. It was a book about history Jack probably already had, but this one was signed by the author and an editor. Jack better appreciate all the effort he put into this, tracking down that book and making himself a date from scratch.

They stood awkwardly at the door for a second, Alexei waiting for Kent to do something while Kent was still overwhelmed with the options, when Jack broke from the crowd and headed their way.

“Hey, Kenny,” Jack greeted with that small smile of his, going in for a hug. “Glad you could make it.”

Kent returned the hug with a quick pat on the back before stepping away. “Of course I would make it.” He gestured at Alexei. “And this is my boyfriend that I told you about, Alexei.” God, that was awkward.

Alexei was there with a smile and a handshake. “Is nice meeting you! Happy birthday!”

“Thanks. Nice meeting you too,” Jack answered, accepting the handshake. He looked over at Kent with a weird look in his eye.

Feeling bold, Kent looped his arm around Alexei’s arm and grinned at Jack. “What’s that look, Zimms? Surprised that he’s real?”

Jack snorted and smiled. “A bit, yeah.” He looked over Alexei for a second longer before stepping towards the crowd. “Well, you two enjoy the party. Dinner should be ready soon.”

“Cool. We’ll be around,” Kent said, mock saluting Jack. Two down. He still had his arm around Alexei’s arm, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he was positioned to more comfortably hold Kent’s arm. Feeling a flutter in his chest, Kent eased his arm down to instead catch Alexei’s hand

They found Swoops quickly (“Swoops!” Alexei exclaimed as he pulled the other man into a bear hug that squeezed the breath out of him. Swoops huffed out a breath once Alexei dropped him, shaking his arms out. “Mashkov, my man! How’s being alive treating you?”) and easily settled into a chat with familiar faces. Kent did not leave Alexei’s side at all.

Dinner was… both smoother and more aggravating than Kent expected. Alexei was perfect. He knew how to use a fork and knife. He’s giving his opinion on current events. He’s complementing Jack in his performance in the previous season. He’s putting his hand on Kent’s thigh even when he doesn’t have to and that just sends a flash of warmth through him. Hell, he even leaned over to press a kiss on his cheek, apparently loosened with the alcohol, and left Kent both warmed and empty.

And when the birthday pie came around, he literally stood up at gave Eric a hug, so moved.

It would be the perfect night if Kent wasn’t so dismayed at how soon he would have to let him go. He could make Alexei stay, easily, but he couldn’t. Kent told himself that everything that was making him fall in love with Alexei was exactly what he knew would make him fall in love with someone. He knows about hockey. He’s charmingly foreign. He’s sweet because Kent made him sweet. But then there were the parts that were pure Alexei. How vehemently he defended the Falcs. How he at one point wandered away from Kent to join a different conversation. And how much he enjoyed the pie (cake was better, that was a scientific fact).

“Party was fun,” Alexei said as he led Kent to the elevators after the party. He was still holding his hand even though he didn’t have to anymore. He must have noticed that Kent didn’t have some witty retort and added, “Are you feeling okay?”

Kent shook it off as they stepped into the pinging elevator. He jabbed the ground button with more force than necessary. “Yeah, I’m good. Just still too drunk than it’s polite to be and tired of socializing.”

Alexei grunted a reply and squeezed his hand. The trip down to the ground floor was silent. Kent at least could focus on ordering an Uber since he was not good to drive and no way he was testing Alexei’s driving skills now. They stepped out to the end of the garden at the front of the apartment building. And they were still holding hands by then.

“Hey, you don’t hand to hold my hand anymore,” Kent pointed out gently.

“No, is fine. Is nice,” Alexei said with a shrug but still loosened his grip so Kent could pull his hand away. Already he missed holding Alexei’s hand but he focused on scrolling through his Facebook that he rarely used.

“Thank you so much for inviting me tonight,” Alexei said after a while, hands in his pockets. “Had very nice time. Maybe could keep in touch with friends.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kent muttered, distracted by his phone. “We’ll figure out the logistics later.”

Kent was very aware of how Alexei looked away for a second, fidgeting, before suddenly saying. “My writing is bettering. Look, see.” He took a stick from the ground and slowly dragged it over the dirt at the edge of a rosebush. Kent had no idea of what he was trying to write. The stick was unsteady as Alexei pulled and pushed lines. If he squinted, Kent might guess that he was trying to write his name but that might be that wishful thinking humans had for seeing things that weren’t...

His stomach clenched.

Alexei chuckled at the results as he tossed the stick aside. “Eh, sorry... is easier with pen and paper.” He must have noticed how the blood had drained from Kent’s face because he sounded more defensive as he spoke up again, “Is supposed to be your name but am knowing that is not very good. I learn quickly, no worries. I get better fast.”

Wordlessly, Kent pushed up his shirt sleeve and peeled off the elastic band on his forearm. He held up his arm to the light and yup, there it was. The mess of scratches Alexei had written down on the dirt.

Alexei looked at the mark, then looked up at Kent, then back to the mark. “Oh.” Kent turned away and quickly pulled the sleeve back on, but Alexei grabbed for the sleeve. “No, don’t do that. Don’t do that.”

Kent let him take away the sleeve and let him inspect his arm. Alexei’s hand was warm and solid and gentle as he traced his fingertips over the dark lines. In his nerves and because he’s Kent, he just started talking, “This doesn’t have to mean anything. Soulmates are flukes like... 32% of the time. I read a paper about it. I mean, it wasn’t very good and had a ton of errors but still. You don’t have to stay with me because of what my arm says. You don’t even have a mark. And I like, literally made you in my garage with the same stuff I made my cat with, and—"

“Let’s go home,” Alexei cut in, grinning. “You think too much. Genius but not smart enough to see what was right in front of you. Figure out logistics later, yeah?”

Despite himself and despite several bioethical guidelines, probably, he smiled and eagerly caught Alexei’s hand. To hell with his usual protocol.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Kent, meet your new boyfriend](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17214536) by [McBangle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/McBangle/pseuds/McBangle)




End file.
